1861 Springfield Rifled musket.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejxByA-siSs


this is something you might find interesting. This person is shooting an open sight 1861 Springfield Rifled Musket with minnie ball. The amazing thing is, he is shooting a 24" plate at 650 yards and hitting it more then missing it.

So the next time you hear someone tell you that the traditional muzzleloader is not accurate at long distances... well ask them if they would be willing to stand out at 650 yards in front of this person. Even a minnie at that distance has enough energy to plow right through you, or worse yet, tumble right through you.

cayugad

Cool! I wanna do that....

Cayugad
 

Thanks for the heads -up. I find it very interesting,as I just got one of these at Christmas time, pretty much planning to use it for a wall decoration - my wife bugged me till I got it for her, but after seeing the video - I'm gonna start shooting that old smoker. It really is a beauty.

You have to be kidding me. At 650 yards you could hardly even see that 2 foot plate let alone hit it with a muzzleloader with open sights.

That feller gots lot better eyes than me, IMPRESSIVE

That's awesome. I was watching a TV show the other night and they were claiming that "muskets" were only accurate out to 30 yards. I just laughed and changed the channel.

Cool, cool, cool, I would love to ve able to shoot like that. Or gave a rifle like that.

The old 1851 451 Gibbs rifles were so accurate back then that today they still do great in long range competition. Pedersoli has a sweet replica but my pockets are not that deep.

TNHagies

The key here is RIFLED musket. Muskets back then were usually smooth bore and preferred for close range use by many soldiers only because fouling didnt slow down loading as much. Revised bullet designs greatly helped that problem.

True and I agree. However, this program improperly used the term "musket" to discribe all muzzleloaders. I would have bet my life savings they couldn't have told you the difference between a smoothbore and a Long Range Hunter.

When I first saw that You Tube video.. I also thought, "Man I can't even see that far."

There was another video of a man shooting a 45/70 or maybe it was a 45/90 Sharps Rifle. And the cool part was he had a video feed camera on the target. So you'd see him shoot and then in the corner of the screen was the video of the target. And suddenly a huge hole would appear. All of sudden he was shooting a group with that Vernier Tang sight. When he gets up to check his shots.. They pan out to the target. I'd hate to guess how far that thing was, away from him. But his group was really impressive.

That just goes to show you, what a good rifle, and especially a good shooter can do if they KNOW THEIR RIFLE.

I have a buddy that let me shoot him 45-120. Loaded with 120g of Bp and a hand cast bullet. That thing was awsome. It felt like it took a full second for the bullet to leave the barrel. We were shooting at a target out to 300 yards. with the vernier long range sight and globe front sight it was pretty easy to hit a 2ft X 2ft target. I would love to have a gun like that, but my wallet won't streach that far.

They are costly, that's for sure. If I lived in a place where I could get some distance to shoot, I would buy one. Just to plink with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLi7AkaxKGk

this person hit a man sized target at 800 yards open sights with a 1861 Springfield rifled musket, shooting a minnie ball, 777 powder with a black powder booster.

I have a Zoli Zouave, .58 cal. and I am still amazed at the accuracy I can get from it. I cast my own mini's and really enjoy this rifle.

What does one of your cast minnies weigh? Where did you get the mold? And how much powder do you put under them? These rifles are really starting to interest me, and you know what that means...

Because this is an N-SSA gun, I only use 41 grs. of Goex FFF. the mini is called the Hodgdon bullet and I believe it weighs in at 400 grs. The mold is my friends and I am borrowing it now. It is a RCBS-Hodgdon 578 mold. I had to update this info after looking at my target. This is the bullet:



Five shot group at 50 yds:

WOW!!! nice shooting.. Is that normal that so little powder is used? Now I know the average load during the Civil War was between 60-70 grains of 2f black powder. Of is this what they recommend for that bullet? That looks like it would make a good hunting load. I bet even with just 40+ grains of powder, that big heavy conical would knock the snot out of a deer.

That load is just for N-SSA targets. I would use 65 grs. for hunting. In Virginia we must have a minimum load of 50 grs. while hunting big game. I got nice results with 65 gr. load.

You are right about the civil war and the loads they used. 60-70 grs was the norm from what I have been told. But the 41 grs. I use is perfect for hitting the targets they use. They use a board with multiple clay birds as one type and then they use a frame with hanging tiles for another. Then each team lines up and then they start the clock and then all teams proceed to shoot all the clays or tiles.

When at the range in Winchester, Va. for the nationals, it gets really neat with all that smoke. When they do this it is supposed to be the longest shooting line in the U.S.

Now that would be fun to watch!!